Hi guys, can you help me with a research paper?

So I'm writing a research paper for my English class on the differences between male and female gamers, and since CoX has such a high percentage of female players (myself included) I figured this would be a good place to gather some information. So, if you all could answer a few questions for me, that'd be great:

1. Are you male or female?

2. What ATs do you mostly play, and for what reason(s)?

3. Redside, blueside, purpleside, or any combination of the above?

4. What are your favorite story arcs?

5. What makes you like this game?

6. What other games do you play?

7. How long have you been playing?

8. How many alts do you have, what is the average level range, and how many are level 50?

9. Do you bother with softcaps, set bonuses, and all that numerical stuff? What difficulty settings to you normally use?

I'm not asking for your opinions on the differences, if you believe they exist, just your own personal preferences. Once you tell me about you, I'll do all the data analysis... I'm not asking you guys to do my homework for me, I'm only looking for data to write about. Thanks!

1.Male

2. Blasters, scrappers, and brutes mostly. I like to do a lot of damage, and I like to keep moving.

3. I play blueside a lot more, because it is more heavily populated. But I am making more characters gold side now, and playing sometimes on red side, for the story arcs.

4. My favorite story arcs have to be the clone arcs, both blue and red side.

5. I like being able to make any combination of characters. You can have endless costume options, and test plenty of different powers to try unique playstyles. The community is great too.

6. I don't play any other MMOs, but I play many console games. I play games for story and strategy. I enjoyed Bioshock most recently.

7. Roughly 4 years.

8. I have roughly 2-5 alts at a time. I have exactly 2 level 50s, a blaster and a scrapper naturally.

9. I don't bother with any of the technical stuff. The most I do is SOs and checking my endurance consumption vs. Regeneration ratio. I most often play at 0/X0


Good luck with that! I don't like research papers... >.<

1. Male.

2. Scrapper, because they are the perfect balance between Offense and Defense. Scrappers can snap at the drop of a dime, no build up process needed.

3. Blueside.

4. The story arc beginning with Field Agent Keith Nance and ending with Special Agent Jenni Adair. Exhilarating, tragic, and hopeful all at the same time. Love it!

5. In no particular order: combat, Mids' builds, incredible community, regular developer interaction, developer dedication, and character creator.

6. Everything under the sun, except for sports games. I own a PSP, PS3, PC, XBox 360, and Wii.

7. I've been playing games since I was 5. I've been playing the City of games since the headstart days.

8. I have 36 alts. I have 19 level 50's.

9. I do try to min/max characters when they reach level 50. I go for the most difficult settings my characters can handle. To do otherwise is slow and painful death by boredom.

1. Male

2. Blasters - My 1st creation was a blaster, my learning curve was on a blaster and since then all other AT's pale in comparison. I have great damage but I also have to be constantly aware of my surroundings. Using tactics and skill that other AT's don't have to worry about. It made scrappers and the like so boring for me.

3. Blueside

4. Don't have any favorite Arcs

5. I love anything that has to do with superhero mythos, I like the idea of helping others.

6. Old school SNES/N64 or PS2 games. Only other PC game I play is Black & White 2. (this question might get us in trouble btw)

7. Since April of 2005 with one 6 month break due to money issues.

8. 3 1/2 servers full and counting, 16-20, I have only 1 50, my original creation. Another has sat at 49 for 2 years.

9. No, mostly cause I don't play highlevel often enough. Depends on the AT. Usually +1x1 for most, Masterminds and Brutes get jacked up to +2x3 though.

1. Are you male or female?

Yes. Male, if you want specifics.

2. What ATs do you mostly play, and for what reason(s)?

All of them.

3. Redside, blueside, purpleside, or any combination of the above?

All of them.

4. What are your favorite story arcs?

Freakylimpics. It's just amusing.
The Television. For much the same reason.
Vernon von Grunn's arcs.
The whole Kheld set of arcs, 1-50.
Wheel of Destruction. Why, I'm not 100% sure, but I like it.


5. What makes you like this game?

Friends, RP, customization, AE. Character creator. Lack of real grind. Lack of having to have 'uber-leet gear" to do things. Not needing to have a team to do most things. No real brick walls to progress. No "must have" ATs.

6. What other games do you play?

Hmmm.... MMOs, none tend to keep me, though I enjoyed Aion for a bit until the grind really hit. Games in general, Left4Dead 1 and 2, Command and Conquer (except 4. 4 is awful and should be erased from existance. Same with the last Red Alert.) WH40K. Myth/Myth II. IL-2 Sturmovik. Airfix Dogfighter. Missionforce: Cyberstorm. Mechwarrior 3 (and a bit of 4.) World of Goo.

7. How long have you been playing?

*points to left* Since a week before my forum reg date.

8. How many alts do you have, what is the average level range, and how many are level 50?

200+ alts. All level ranges. At least 20 at 50. (One of each AT at 50, several ATs - Defenders, Controllers, Tanks, Peacebringers, Dom coming up - have multiples.)

9. Do you bother with softcaps, set bonuses, and all that numerical stuff? What difficulty settings to you normally use?

Nope. I'll peek at bonuses but rarely really build towards them, and the only soft cap I have intentionally is on my head. Settings are "Where I feel fine with this character." Sometimes higher levels, sometimes larger mobs, sometimes dropping it to -1/0, and sometimes changing between them on the same character depending on what I'm doing.

See my Guides and Tutorials

1. Female (First one in the thread, so far... Neat!)

2. Really can't say. I play pretty much every AT equally, with the exception of VEATs (Too easy)

3. Purpleside! Heroes in the Isles when I play Villains, Heroes in Paragon, And lots of side-changing heroes either going to the Isles to help fight crime, or to Paragon to get away from villainy.

4. Also a tough one... Gonna have to say the Fusionette Task Force, The Responsible Loyalist arcs, and the Wheel of Destruction.

5. It can be fast and frenetic at times, especially when RPing while fighting. Add in a great community, witty banter, and a unique theme (for the first five years) and it's a winning combination! Tack onto that sentimental value from meeting my Fiancee while playing...

6. Oof... umm... recently, not many. But only because I'm bored of the XBox and PS2 right now. But generally FPS, Action, and RPGs.

7. Since Issue 3.... wow... it's been a looooong time now, hasn't it...

8. I've HAD over a hundred alts. Most of them got deleted right around level 30ish to make room for new alts. >.> Right now I've got 20 characters I play "Regularly" and most are between 28 and 41.

9. Depends entirely on the character, though I've been leaning more towards sets these days than I have ever done before. And... well... I usually run at x1 +0, unless either myself or my fiancee is running a melee type. Then we generally pump it up to x5/6 +1/2

Analyze me! =-3

-Rachel-

1. Male
2. Scrappers. Because i like the feeling of being right in the middle of the action where a loss of concentration can make me go from unbeatable to dead in a split second. Also i like the "hidden power" feel of the AT.
3. Mostly blueside.
4. The magic man arc, the first double agent arc, your own superteam arc [cant remember the name, but the one in praetoria] and jade spider arc.
5. The community feel and the fact that i feel like my character is the superhero and not a sidekick to the main characters.
6. Play numerous games lately. Some of them are Fifa11 [awesome!], any dragonball/pokemon game, football manager 2010, tekken and just cause 2.
7. Just got my 60 month veteran badge last week
8. I would say currently have 17 alts [obviously many over the years been deleted] with the majority ranged between level 5 - 37. Have 3 level 50's.
9. Yes i love the IO system and soon as i create a new alt im adjusting my IO targets while i play due to how my playstyle is adapting. For example my main [ill/rad] is built for damage and endurance.

1. Are you male or female?
Male

2. What ATs do you mostly play, and for what reason(s)?
I'm doing one of each to 50, and in fact amn't even done yet despite playing for four years. I have yet to create a Controller, Arachnos Widow or Stalker, and all of my characters (with one exception) are different Archetypes. Of the ones I've played, I enjoy Dominator and the four epic archetypes best because of the variety of powers at their disposal.

3. Redside, blueside, purpleside, or any combination of the above?
I like to play wherever my friends happen to be playing. It's about 50/50. Not too much for Praetoria yet, but I rather do that solo anyway.

4. What are your favorite story arcs?
Dean MacArthur's, Bobcat's and Vernon von Grun's stories are my top picks. Mr. Bocor is my favorite contact. Each of them is quirky and smart, rather than the humdrum "onoz we gotta save the ocean" or "gotta blow up the ocean for recluse" arcs.

5. What makes you like this game?
It's a fun way to kick back and enjoy time with friends. If I had to do this solo, I would have stopped playing long ago.

6. What other games do you play?
Whatever strikes my fancy, really, but I'm a fan of the comical platformers and puzzlers.

7. How long have you been playing?
Bah. Should have read through all the questions before answering! Still 4 years.

8. How many alts do you have, what is the average level range, and how many are level 50?
Again even! 12 characters: 18, 30, 41, 47 and eight 50s. Still got three coming down the pipeline, but I'd like to work with my existing characters a bit longer before starting those.

9. Do you bother with softcaps, set bonuses, and all that numerical stuff? What difficulty settings to you normally use?
I like to frankenslot, personally. I boost my numbers primarily for Accuracy, Endurance and Damage, but I don't jump through hoops to do it. Any resulting set bonuses are accidental.

Here ya go!

1. Female

2. See the sig? I do tend to play high damaging types more than others (scrappers & stalkers, playing the latter one more like a blaster by picking targets rather than jumping in). I also play Defenders & Corruptors more like blasters - focusing on blasting over buff/debuff - but then I mostly solo.

3. Depends on the mood I'm in, although I generally prefer blueside because I know it better.

4. Hard question. None occur immediately to me. Maybe the Croatoa arcs.

5. I love the Costume Creator. I have always liked superhero games in general. The main reason is probably that the game does not require "twitch skills" (never learned them as a kid because I predate video gaming and I don't want to try to develop them.) I can solo when I want, I can team when I want. By picking teams, I can avoid anything resembling Hard Core Min/Maxers, which makes it relaxing.

6. Very few video games, although I do have an addiction to FB time-wasting games. I used to play a couple of turn based games like Heroes of Might & Magic (II-V). Many, many PnP RPGs, including trying out new Superhero titles when they come out.

7. 6 years, at first on my husband's account before I got my own.

8. 60ish, mainly on 5 servers, with a few scattered spares on other servers, including a few on my husband's account. 2 50s, 4 others over 40, several currently under 20 (GoRo Praetorians & new powersets).

9. I'm going to copy MB's answer to this one: "Nope. I'll peek at bonuses but rarely really build towards them, and the only soft cap I have intentionally is on my head. Settings are "Where I feel fine with this character." Sometimes higher levels, sometimes larger mobs, sometimes dropping it to -1/0, and sometimes changing between them on the same character depending on what I'm doing."

Hope that helps. I used to think I would be an "outlier" statistically (older gamer and female as well) but I don't think I am as far as this game goes - the answer is probably different in terms of other games.

1. Male

2. Scrappers, because *puts on shades* we make DPS look gooooood.

3. Mostly heroes

4. "World Wide Red", "The Hammer of the World", "Oh, Wretched Man!", the original "Ubelmann the Unknown", "Revenant Hero Project", "Iron Widow"...I could go on but that's enough for now.


5. The gameplay, and occasionally the writing, and the Mission Architect though I think that's largely run its course.

6. Currently playing Champions Online (very infrequently) and World of Warcraft. I don't do much with single-player games, sometimes Majesty 2, Plants vs. Zombies and Bejewled Blitz on Facebook.

7. Since the game went live, over six years now.

8. 86 alts, counting a few not listed on my web page. Level range is all over the place, haven't calculated any averages. 10 level 50 characters, counting three on Test. Two 49s should be getting there soon.


9. I care about stats but not obsessively; I will only make small concessions in favor of stats over character concept. I usually set difficulty to +0x2+B-AV at level 6 or so and to at least +1x2+B-AV after the character has common IOs. Characters with many sets slotted go to higher difficulty. My one purpled-out character plays at +2x5+B-AV and could probably go higher but frankly having to kill more or tougher mobs just gets boring.

1. Are you male or female?
Female

2. What ATs do you mostly play, and for what reason(s)?
I play them all, but tend to go blasters, trollers, tanks, scrappers, defenders, and now I've recently been adding corruptor, dominator, and stalker to that list. I have at least one of every AT but SoA, but I spend the most time on my blasters and trollers.

3. Redside, blueside, purpleside, or any combination of the above?
Blueside for the most part

4. What are your favorite story arcs?
The ITF, the clone/Proteus ones in the 20s (both red and blueside), Maria Jenkins' arc (old and new)

5. What makes you like this game?
That actually varies. Sometimes it's the community. Other times, the "power" -- I feel super powered with many of my toons. Sometimes, it's the way we can build characters. A lot of time, it's the wide choices available in powersets, look, etc. I love the travel powers, and the mini games that exist in just leaping from building to building with SJ or NR. Many times, it's to play with my friends. Sometimes, I enjoy the graphics. For a few years, I was very much into RP and writing. (Health complications have ended that.) All in all, it's the game I keep coming back to. I've taken a break twice to go to other games, but after about 2 months I'm ready to come back and enjoy it all the more.

6. What other games do you play?
Right now, this is my game. I have in the past played EQ2, WoW, Wizard 101, Eve Online, and a bunch of smaller web games like boring old tetris.

7. How long have you been playing?
I've had my account for 4 years, but have spent a few months taking breaks. So say nearly 4 years.

8. How many alts do you have, what is the average level range, and how many are level 50?
*laughs* I'm somewhere in the 30s for number of alts, at least. I actually have two accounts so I can have my alts all on the same server and still have room for more. I have 6 50s: 1 defender, 1 scrapper, 1 blaster, 2 trollers, and 1 tank. I have at least 5 toons in their 40s. Most of mine are in the 20-30 range, but the ones I play most are actually my 50 blaster and trollers.

9. Do you bother with softcaps, set bonuses, and all that numerical stuff? What difficulty settings to you normally use?
Softcapping, no. Set bonuses, yes. Getting relatively high in set bonuses, on some toons. Numerical stuff, yes. But I go for what I find fun, not necessarily what survives the most. Normally, I actually keep to the default +0/x1, though I'll sometimes kick it up for a little more challenge. My main blaster, I've been running at -1/x4 lately.

1. Are you male or female?

-Female, catgirl wannabe!

2. What ATs do you mostly play, and for what reason(s)?

- Scrappers, Brutes, Blasters and Dominators. I like the damage!

3. Redside, blueside, purpleside, or any combination of the above?

- Blueside.

4. What are your favorite story arcs?

- The new Praetoria arcs, the Keith Nance arc, Freaklympics, Croatoa.

5. What makes you like this game?

- The gameplay, the friends, the customization, the catgirls.

6. What other games do you play?

- Right now, Civilzation V and FFXIV (Catgirls!)

7. How long have you been playing?

- Since 3 days before release, preorder headstart on US servers, moved to EU later on. Thats... 78 months coming on now in october.

8. How many alts do you have, what is the average level range, and how many are level 50?

- Erm, 50-ish alts, average level is probably 30-ish, and i have eleven level 50's.

9. Do you bother with softcaps, set bonuses, and all that numerical stuff? What difficulty settings to you normally use?

- Really depends on character, i have a few i've gone all out on, but on those not 50? nope.
On Sapphic Neko, i play at +0/x6. Really varies with the character and the team.

1. Are you male or female?
Male

2. What ATs do you mostly play, and for what reason(s)?
I tend to play either Brutes/Tanks or Controllers. Mostly an evolution based on whatever my son would need to stay alive really..

3. Redside, blueside, purpleside, or any combination of the above?
Lately a lot of time Blue, I've played Redside so often I'm sort of 'fed up' with it atm.

4. What are your favorite story arcs?
Presently the Praetorian arcs, but that's obvious enough. Aside from those, I like the Red arcs far better than the Blue ones. Those need a serious overhaul by now.

5. What makes you like this game?
This game let's me do what I want. I can solo 99% of its content, so I can easily play one mission, then log or leave the PC for longer periods of time to do whatever needs done around the house. And, quite a large reason is that this game is so immensely diverse in character possibilities..

6. What other games do you play?
At present none really. Solitaire doesn't count

7. How long have you been playing?
Right from the start, though I have been away in total one year because of work (so little time at home in that period, it was counterproductive to keep the account active).

8. How many alts do you have, what is the average level range, and how many are level 50?
Seeing how I mostly play on Union, I'm now up to 31 after some deleting the other day. Average level range I'd say is 30-ish, at the moment 11 of them are 50.

9. Do you bother with softcaps, set bonuses, and all that numerical stuff? What difficulty settings to you normally use?
I uually don't bother too much on the way to 50 with all those, I just get IO's at 35 to make it easy on myself, at 50 I'll check how I like my overall recharge or defense and maybe I'll get something then. It's far from a priority anyway. As for difficulty settings, it depends on the character. Tanks mostly get to +2/4, squishies mostly hover around +0/6 if they are controllers and +2/1 for blasters. Challenges without aggrevating myself, I play to relax in the end

1. Are you male or female?
Male.

2. What ATs do you mostly play, and for what reason(s)?
My namesake is a Nrg/Nrg/Mun Blaster, but most recently Elec/Shield Scrapper due to the story I have for my character.

3. Redside, blueside, purpleside, or any combination of the above?
Originally hardcore blueside, currently redside, but I'd say purpleside most popularly.

4. What are your favorite story arcs?
Scirocco's entire Patron Arc was very interestin' for recent favorites, but Croatoa has always held a soft spot in my heart in terms o' story and settin'.

5. What makes you like this game?
Customization, be it in costumes, powers, or tellin' a story in Mission Architect. It lets the player essentially do what they want to do.

6. What other games do you play?
N/A

7. How long have you been playing?
Five years.

8. How many alts do you have, what is the average level range, and how many are level 50?
Over a dozen level fifties, and I don't have many, if any, alts. I tend to fixate and finish a project before I move onto somethin' else.

9. Do you bother with softcaps, set bonuses, and all that numerical stuff? What difficulty settings to you normally use?
I do because I want to be a superhero/villain. I go higher when I want to test somethin' or push a character limit, but I normally just play at +0/x0. Just because I know I can survive it doesn't mean I want to spend three minutes beatin' down a max size mob.

1.Female

2. I have at least one of each AT, but I love playing defenders and controllers. I like to play any kind of support.

3. I play both. I've went through periods of just red or just blue, but I usually jump back and forth regularly.

4. Portal Corps

5. The ability to make your own story by way of powers, costume, and bio. Social aspect, as well (have made some friends on here).

6. I like Mario games, though I don't really play other games that much anymore.

7. Around 5 years

8. I have about 30 alts on the server I play on, and lots of toons I never play on other servers. My alts are usually either 30-50 or 1-15.

9. I pay no attention to anything like that. I have one character that has all sets, but the others I've tried to IO out, I've lost interest. It depends on who I am playing with the difficulty, but it's usually on the lower side.

1. Male

2. Blasters, Scrappers and Doms are all kinda tied for most played AT

3. Redside but I think thats more of a base issue then me preferring the content in the isles over Paragon.

4. Darrin Wades first arc, Council/5th were you discover were Warwolves and later Vamps come from.

5. The Superhero genre allows other genres to fit inside of it so easily. Other MMOs just lock you into one or two genres at a time.

6. Borderlands and Star Trek Online are the only other games installed on my computer but any free time I have to play video games gets devoted to CoX.

7. I started playing in Issue 2, I should point out I was one of those who over reacted to ED and left the game for something like a year. I would at this time like to thank the Devs for giving me Vet Reward time as if I had never let my subscription lapse.

8. I can't buy anymore slots on Virtue. The Default slots on Justice and Freedom are pretty much filled with level 6ish characters that I rolled in order to test costumes and concepts before I cleared a slot on Virtue for them. I have 6 50s but I have a habit of abandoning toons in the early 40s.

9. By 38 I like to have every toon to have built 20% recharge and 20% defense to something (mostly ranged). Unless the toon is really single target damage (EM) I'll increase to 4 virtual teamates before I bump the level of my enemies up.

1. Are you male or female?

Female.

2. What ATs do you mostly play, and for what reason(s)?

Mostly support characters, simply because I find the support sets so different from each other and that makes them unique and interesting. For example, my Dark Defender plays like a pseudo Tank and Controller. My Kin Defender is probably my busiest toon because there is always something to do and never a dull moment. With that said, I do have a level 50 of almost every other AT (Blaster, Scrapper, Tanker, etc.) but I find my interest in them plateaus after a certain point.

3. Redside, blueside, purpleside, or any combination of the above?

I've spent most of my time on blueside after starting up an SG about 4 years ago. Folks have traditionally shown more interest in blueside. However, these days it varies.

4. What are your favorite story arcs?

That's a tough question! I enjoy the arcs in Striga quite a bit, as well as the arcs in Croatoa. I have to say, though, that I always look forward to going through the AVs in Maria Jenkins' arc as I'm leveling up a new toon.

5. What makes you like this game?

I love the degree to which you can customize your characters. But I'd have to say that the friends I have made over the years are the driving factor behind my enjoyment of the game.

6. What other games do you play?

I don't understand the question.

(None).

7. How long have you been playing?

Since August 2004.

8. How many alts do you have, what is the average level range, and how many are level 50?

TNTC. (Too many). I've finished leveling most of them, so the vast majority are sitting at 50. I've got a few very low level ones, and maybe one or two in their 30s.

9. Do you bother with softcaps, set bonuses, and all that numerical stuff? What difficulty settings to you normally use?

Absolutely. I can become quite the Mids junkie once I've decided on a project. I haven't gotten around to putting IOs in all of my characters though, since I tend to chip away at one build at a time. As for difficulty settings, it depends on the team, the level range, and the task at hand.

Good luck on your paper!

1. Male

2. I like mixing it up with my Scrappers and being in the middle of the action. I also like playing around and RP'ing with Masterminds.

3. I play a perfect balance between Hero, Villain and Praetorian. Whatever my mood is I will play.

4. LOVE Azuria's missions! (Just kidding!) I love the Praetorian Arcs and the I17 arcs including the updated Positron TF's. And Maria Jenkins' "A Hero's Epic"

5. I love the community and the whole plotlines. I love epic RWZ raids and invasions. I love the customization and the fact that I don't feel like I'm a clone of someone else's character.

6. Aside from CoH, I love the Legend of Zelda games and Mario. As my Avatar suggests, I also play Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart as well.

7. Since just before Issue 4 hit. (How far have we come?)

8. I am one of those who suffer from altitis. I have too many alts to name. I do have 3 50's and quite a few 20+'s.

9. As long as I'm strong enough to conquer my foes, I don't worry about IO's. I have been working on getting my level 50 Scrapper's Accolades though. I normally play on the default (x1 player, +0 level)

1. female

2. I find melee damage characters come most naturally - brutes and scrappers, but play all ATs and am enjoying levelling a couple of corruptors at the moment. I find tanks the hardest to play, all that responsibility on a team and no ability to just smash things...

3. I like the missions arcs (and mayhems) Redside better than Blueside- but as I live in Australia so play at off times I play blueside just to find teams. Praetoria is fun too

4. I like the variety in the newer content

5 teaming, especially with friends, that it doesn't require the 'twitch' factor to be successful and how each differently each AT/powerset plays.

6. none really - spider solitaire and other time fillers

7. 4 yrs

8. about 50 that I play, 10 of them at 50 and the rest pretty evenly spread from 3 to 45.

9. As I really don't like playing the market game none of my chars can afford to be purpled out, but I do get sets on the ones I like playing. Difficulty depends on the char and how often I solo with them

1. Male

2. Defenders because I like to save people.

3. Usually blueside.

4. The newer ones by far, the ones with your clones and Praetoria ones. So well written and they make me feel like I'm making a difference.

5. I'm a huge comic fan, and this lets me bring my ideas to life. Plus I have a fantastic SG.

6. I used to play some WoW, and I've tried other MMO's, but CoH is where I remain.

7. Since Beta 2004.

8. I have over 80 alts, average range is late 20's, and i have 19 level 50's.

9. I've only began using set bonuses, but they make a world of difference. Only use them once I'm 50 though. And my difficulty level varies based on character I'm playing and team makeup.

1. Male.

2. Tanks, controllers and defenders. I like keeping teammates alive.

3. Probably 90% blue side.

4. Twilight's Son's arc in Ouroboros. Upon the Psychic Plane. The Clockwork Captive (that's the one with Lou's garage).

5. It holds my interest since there's a lot of different things to do. Also, I like superheroes. I was playing the Champion PnP game when CoH came out.

6. The Myst series and mah jongg. No other online games.

7. 5 yrs 3 months

8. Counting only toons I actually play: I'm currently leveling 5 toons at 16, 19, 23, 39 and 46. The others (19 of them) are 50.

9. Yes, I bother with the math stuff. I IO all my characters once they get into the 30's.
I typically play at +1 level, regular team size. Unless I'm on a farming toon, then +0 level, team of 8.